


Trademarked

by PerseusHuntress



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 13:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16833355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerseusHuntress/pseuds/PerseusHuntress





	Trademarked

Shepard idly watched Garrus pace the Comm Room, as Ashley and Kaidan argued. 

“We know Benezia has connections with Saren. It’s as simple as that” Ash all but stomped her foot in frustration.

“Noveria is a fortress, all that vested interest, money, backdoor dealings, it will keep. Feros, on the other hand, is sending a distress signal, they should be our top priority, Saren or no” Kaidan’s calm did nothing to quell Ashley’s irritation.

Shepard sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, this has been going on for what felt like hours now. She looked around the room, Tali had subtly slipped into a stupor, her gaze fixed on the opposite wall. Garrus leant down to look at a particularly fascinating screw, stroking it with his thumb absentmindedly. Wrex outright reclined on his seat eyes closed, with not a single damn given. Only Liara maintained a respectful fascination with the proceedings, her eyes darted between the two humans in an invisible tennis match. 

“We are not a rescue mission Lieutenant!” Ashley snapped “We have a job to do, and that job is to stop Saren, not run around the galaxy performing mindless heroics!”

Kaidan cringed and turned to look at the Commander “Shepard, tie breaker?”

“And you were doing so well without me!” she exclaimed theatrically. The answer was that she just didn’t know. Unfortunately, clairvoyance was not in her job description, and both her officers had a point. They call it the burden of command. She called it sleepless nights and a growing pile of guilt. She stalled, looking around the room, trying to find help, but even Wrex deemed it necessary to open one eye and fix it expectantly on her.

A slight noise to her right made her spin her chair around in her desperation.

“Vakarian, thoughts?” she expected the turian to fumble in embarrassment, caught out by the senior officer, but he had other ideas.

“Noveria, Commander” his subharmonics purred out her name like a caress, head tilted forward he fixed a predatory, starved gaze directly on her.

Shepard inhaled sharply, her insides clawed at her as she struggled to make a sound, she felt pinned by the sheer force of that gesture, something primal screamed for her to run, but a smaller voice quietly asked ‘which way?’. Her bewildered mind barely registered her own surroundings, the entire crew fell deadly silent, if she had the presence of mind to look at them she would have been greeted by slack jaws and farcical expressions. 

The spell was broken by Wrex’s bark of a laugh “You should warn them next time Vakarian. Our Gunnery Chief looks like she is about to submit a mating request.”

“What?” Garrus looked up at the krogan releasing Shepard from his thrall. She could breathe again but didn’t trust herself to move, her limbs felt limp, and she figured that toppling off her chair sideways was not dignified. She awkwardly half turned to look at her crew who were all arranged in various state of shock. Ashley’s face shone bright red and she opened and closed her mouth in silent protest to Wrex’s accusations, meanwhile Kaidan stared at the turian with abject horror. Liara once more managed to maintain the biggest amount of decorum her face clouded with only mild confusion.

“What the in ancestors’ name was that?” Tali’s giggle bubbled up at a hysterical pitch ‘What did you just do?!”

“I didn’t do anything?!” Garrus took a nervous step back throwing up his hands to shield himself from 5 pairs of eyes boring into him.

Shepard recovered some semblance of coherence and turned back to him.

“Riiiight, and that ‘fuck me’ stare was what? An accident?”

His eyes widened in surprise, his mandibles twitched and he took another step, backing himself up against the wall.

“Shepard, I believe it’s a turian thing.” Liara spoke calmly “Predatory instinct when cornered, although I must say I have never seen one this intense before”

Shepard could help but laugh “The Vakarian Stare-down™? Wrex is right you should take care with that one, it’s dangerous.”

Garrus dropped his shoulders and smiled weakly in response “Yes Ma’am, I will use it with caution next time.”

Shepard returned the smile “To Noveria it is then, maybe we can try out our new weapon of mass destruction and seduce the Geth into submission”

It was decided. As the meeting broke up Liara made her way toward the commander, quietly gesturing her over for a word. 

“Shepard” the asari shuffled on the spot “that was weird” 

“What was?” Shepard replied.

“Well, Predatory Instinct thing, that was a white lie, save him some dignity” she grimaced.

“Meaning?” Shepard frowned.

“Meaning, if that was, in fact, an involuntary reaction, it should have left us cowering on the floor, not…” she broke off.

Shepard glanced over at the turian who was staring blankly into the room with a panicked expression.

“Not wanting to rip our own clothes off I assume?” Shepard finished for her.

“Well yes…” Liara cringed “Just thought you’d want to know”

“Huh…”


End file.
